At the Abegweit Warehouse, all potatoes follow the rule that spuds must only be best friends with taters having a different number of eyes from each other -- opposite and never equal! Any potatoes who dare break this rule end up becoming curly cut fries.

However, when Taylor meets Jordan, the two two-eyed potatoes immediately hit it off. Afraid of punishment, they avoid meeting each other only to end up depressed and lonely.

A is for Activist

It’s pretty clear from page one that this is no Cat in the Hat. Billed as a book for the children of the 99%, A is for Activist is the radical vision of Innosanto (Inno) Nagara, a graphic designer and social justice activist from Oakland, California.

Don't

Three Wishes: Palestinian and Israeli Children Speak

by Deborah Ellis

( Groundwood Books,

2004;

$12.95)

I BLAME IT all on The Diary of Anne Frank. I read it when I was about twelve. I have lived with a faint but constant thrum of fear ever since.The idea that a little girl was not protected, that an entire people was nearly exterminated and other Germans allowed it to happen âe" encouraged it to happen âe" that no one was safe, that few stood upâe¦ It pulverized any sense of safety my middle-class, loving, suburban home could provide.

The Diary of Anne Frank made me become aggressively vigilant against injustice, sexism, racism and classism. Hence, I became a feminist activist Palestinian Canadian woman. I fight shariah law.

Don't

SO YOU'RE LOOKING for a good book to give that special young person in your life, but your pesky politics and general high standards are making it a challenge. You don't want it to be formulaic dreck, like the 23rd book in the Best Friends at the Mall Forever series for young adults; you don't want just another product-placement picture book based on the latest toddler-geared television-character craze. And you want some good quality writing, a progressive theme, no obvious preaching. A Canadian author would be nice, too.

Here are a few ideas âe" for toddlers to teens âe" that might make life a little easier.